In mid-1995, a government effort to reduce the supply of methamphetamine precursors successfully disrupted the methamphetamine market and interrupted a trajectory of increasing usage. The price of methamphetamine tripled and purity declined from 90 percent to 20 percent. Simultaneously, amphetaminerelated hospital and treatment admissions dropped 50 percent and 35 percent, respectively. Methamp...

OBJECTIVE Assessment of habitual physical activity (PA) in patients with heart failure. METHODS This study included 50 patients with heart failure (61.9 ± 4.0 yr). Seven days of PA were assessed by questionnaire (AQ), pedometer, and accelerometer and correlated with prognostic markers including VO(2peak), percent left-ventricular ejection fraction, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, a...

PURPOSE To determine the relationship between total body and trunk fat mass and gait performance in postmenopausal women. METHODS Thirty-nine postmenopausal women aged 50 years or more were studied. The following items were determined: weight and height to calculate body mass index (BMI), body composition using the technique of Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA), and gait using baropodome...

A three-dimensional central composite design was used to study the effect of glycerol level, freeze rate, and thaw rate on acrosomal retention and percent motility. Glycerol levels examined were: 1, 4, 7, 10 and 13%. Average freeze rates between 1 0 and 8 0 C examined were: 6.5, 13.1, 26.3, 52.5 and 105.0 C/minute. Thaw rates studied were achieved by plunging straws into water at 5 C for 2 rain...

BACKGROUND The burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is quite high and its prevalence is increasing. We aimed to evaluate the correlation of COPD severity according to the American Thoracic Society (ATS) criteria with spirometric measurements in patients admitted to the emergency ward. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 50 randomly selected patie...

A radioimmunoassay (RIA) for human thyroxine-binding prealbumin (PA) is described. It employs highly purified PA, anti-human PA serum at 1:30,000 final dilution, normal bovine serum as a carrier, and polyethyleneglycol to precipitate the immune complexes. This assay is extremely sensitive (limit of detection less than 0.2 micrograms per dL or less than 3.6 X 10(-15) moles per tube), accurate (r...

Background. Endothelial function is viewed as a barometer of cardiovascular health and plays a central role in vascular reactivity. Several studies showed digital thermal monitoring (DTM) as a simple noninvasive method to measure vascular reactivity that is correlated with atherosclerosis risk factors and coronary artery disease. Objectives. To further evaluate the relations between patient cha...

BACKGROUND The importance of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is increasingly recognized. We conducted a study to evaluate the epidemiologic features and outcomes of patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and to compare the findings with those from patients who had heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. METHODS From April 1, 1999, through March 31, 2...

Right-sided chest lead ECGs (V3R to V6R) were recorded in 110 normal male subjects who were between the ages of 17 and 22 years old (mean, 17.9 years). The prevalence of the rS pattern decreased from V3R (89 percent) to V6R (37 percent). However, the opposite was the case for the rSr pattern (10 percent in V3R and 36 percent in V6R). The amplitudes of the r wave, S wave and secondary r wave all...